I put out the call to my friend Jill at Domaine547LA to help me with my “drink more sparkling wine” goal this year. Ever accommodating to the fact that I utterly refuse to use her website to order wine, she came back with recommendations for about a dozens bottles of sparkling, and of course some still wines too! I picked 4 sparklings and rounded it out with the best Grenache Blanc ever and a Pinot Gris. This is a new one for me, I don’t think I’ve had a Cremant de Loire…Cremant of other places in France, sure, but not Loire. We picked out the Julien Fouet Cremant de Loire on a Tuesday night to drink simply because it was a Tuesday night and that called for bubbles. It clocked in at 12.5% alcohol by volume, had a typical Champagne closure, and cost me $19.99 from DomaineLA.

On the nose I found toast, bright red fruit, strawberries, lime, spice, and pepper. I loved the salmon color on this wine, though I fear my photography skills (or lack thereof) leave a lot to be desired and it appears a lot pinker in my photos than it did in real life. In the mouth I got spice, raspberry, strawberry, and an orange rind note. Bone dry, crisp, tangy, and lots of little bubbles…this will make a frequent appearance at our back yard bbqs this summer.